Eater and HowAboutWe launch dating service for foodies

Eater.com, the popular blog network that covers bar and restaurant news across 15 metropolitan areas, has teamed up with online matchmaking service HowAboutWe to launch “Eater Dating.”

HowAboutWe is a brilliantly simple site which lets people plan first dates around events they both want to do (i.e. “Go ice skating at Rockefeller Center.”) So naturally, Eater Dating, which is powered by HowAboutWe, will encourage people to set up foodie-centric dates, such as “Sit outside and eat oysters at the Ferry Building” or “Get dressed up for martinis at the Cafe Carlyle.”

In a blog post announcing the new dating feature, Eater’s Austin Pollock wrote:

“We never thought we’d be offering such a service via these pages, but then we met the good folks behind HowAboutWe, who have done nothing less than turn online dating on its head. The beauty of HowAboutWe, and, in turn, Eater Dating, which is powered by HowAboutWe, is that it starts with the date, not the profile. You, the dater, post the kind of date you’d like to go on and choose from those who like the sound of that date. It’s a pretty elegant solution to an age-old problem.”

I think it’s a very smart partnership, as both Eater and HowAboutWe have gained lots of traction in the urban professional crowd. Eater Dating will let people hit two birds with one stone: They meet someone new, while trying a new bar or restaurant they wanted to check out anyway. It takes the pressure off of first dates, and lets people get to know each other in a more old-fashioned way — by talking in person, rather than poring over long online dating profiles. No matter how well-connected we all become virtually, real-life interactions are still what makes the world go around — so it’s nice to see services that use technology to help make that happen.